Tag Archives: jerry spinelli

As most often happens, my plan for writing goals for ourselves didn’t go according to – well plan. We came back from winter break and needed to readjust ourselves to school by reviewing routines. We came back from winter break just to have a late start to school one day. We came back from winter break and we just needed to get used to each other again.

So our goal setting conversations shifted to this week. This actually worked out better because goal setting ties in well with our character trait for the month Commitment. Our guidance counselor teaches a lesson each month about a particular character trait. Monday, she spoke with the children about commitment and what it means to our goals in kindergarten and for when we grow up. Tuesday, we quickly reviewed commitment in a “little chat” about trying our best and doing our job as students in the classroom. 🙂 Wednesday brought our read aloud, I Can be Anything by Jerry Spinelli.

In this charming picture book, the little boy dreams of all the things he can be – from a make believe critter to a cheek-to-cheek grinner. The kids loved all the things and giggled at many of the pictures. We talked about each of the things the little boy could be. One student said “Um, he needs to pick one!” This led to a discussion of how each of us can be more than one thing. I am a teacher, book lover, cupcake baker, etc. To help prepare us for our writing, we used the app Popplet to create a web on the Smartboard of all the things we can/want to be now and when we grow up.

From there, we went into small group writing. Students made the outline look like themselves as whatever they wanted to be. We have many future police officers, a few doctors, a couple cheerleaders, and even a unicorn! We CAN be ANYTHING!

About Frannie

I teach Kindergarten in Charleston, SC. I have a master's degree in children's literature as well as a media specialist degree. My belief that literacy is the vehicle to all learning drives my instruction.

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